You can now send a letter to President Obama with a Facebook bot

President Obama is about to get a lot more mail. 

The White House just became the latest Facebook account to join the social network's bot platform, with a new Messenger bot that makes sending a note to the president as easy as writing a Facebook message.

Meant to be an alternative to contacting the White House via emails or letters, the White House's Messenger bot walks you through the process of sending a message to Obama. 

Of course, as with sending an email or letter to Pennsylvania Ave., sending a Facebook message doesn't guarantee the message will end up in Obama's hands (or, on his screen). Once you've finalized your note in Messenger, the bot prompts you for your contact information, including your email address and phone number, in the event that your message is one of the handful that gets a followup.

The White House's Facebook bot.

IMAGE: SCREENSHOT/FACEBOOK

The White House hasn't said exactly how it plans to sift through the incoming messages that arrive via Facebook, but it will likely be handled by the Office of Presidential Correspondence, which chooses the 10 letters and emails Obama reads each day.

In a post on the White House's blog, White House Chief Digital Officer Jason Goldman says the Facebook bot represents "a first of its kind for any government the world over."

"Our goal is to meet people where they are. It’s why the President launched his own Twitter account and the First Lady is on Snapchat," he wrote. "It’s about creating opportunities for people to engage with their government in new and accessible ways, using the same technologies we already rely on in our daily lives."

The move is also something of a milestone for Facebook, whose bot platform is less than a year old. Since launching in the spring, the effort has grown to more than 11,000 bots. Now that Obama's White House has officially joined their ranks, Facebook may be able attract a whole new set of users to the technology.

Facebook Messenger has more than 11,000 bots

Facebook just moved one step closer toward making its bot ambitions a reality.

Just months after introducing the first bots for Facebook Messenger at F8, the social network now counts more than 11,000 bots on its platform, the company announced. The milestone comes alongside some major improvements to how the bots work inside of Messenge.

The updates add more functionality — like the ability to use GIFs and other media with bots — and more streamlined features that will address many of the bots' early usability problems. 

A new quick reply feature, for example, will surface suggested responses based on your conversation, which should help guard against the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ responses many encountered with the initial wave of Messenger bots. 

IMAGE: FACEBOOK

Facebook is also giving users more control over how they mange their conversations with bots, with the ability to mute a bot they don't want to see notifications from. Users can also provide feedback directly to the bot developers through star ratings and reviews. 

For the businesses and developers who create the bots, the social network is also upgrading what the bots can actually do. Businesses are now able to connect customer accounts to their Messenger accounts. If users opt in to this, the bots will be better able to create personalized experiences based on what the companies already know about their customers.

IMAGE: FACEBOOK

Speaking of personalization, developers are also now able to add a little more personality to their bots, which now support GIFs, videos, audio files and other attachments. 

The improvements come as Facebook’s bot platform — now more than 11,00 strong — grows bigger than ever. And that number is set to grow even bigger, with more than 23,000 developers signed up for the company's bot technology, Facebook’s Messenger chief David Marcus said Friday. 

Whether or not the improvements will increase users' engagement is another matter. The first wave of bots were largely disappointing and it doesn't appear that the bots have made the splash Facebook hoped for. There are still a significant number of users that are resistant to using the Messenger app for their messaging, much less to message bots. 

But the updates do promise to bring some much needed improvements for those already making and using the bots — maybe it will be enough to get more people to give them a try, too.

Here's how your Facebook Messenger inbox is getting smarter

IMAGE: FACEBOOK

BY KARISSA BELL3 DAYS AGO

The Facebook Messenger app is about to be updated with a new design that also makes its inbox smarter.

The new look, which rolls out later this week, will change how the app's home tab is organized. Right now, it acts as a pretty standard inbox, showing all of your message threads with the most recent on top.

In the redesign, Messenger's home screen will still display some of your most recent conversations at the top — but it will also add more personalized information farther down. 

IMAGE: FACEBOOK

For instance, a "favorites" section will offer up links to the people you contact most often. Upcoming birthdays will be prominently displayed, and an "active now" section will show you who is "available in the moment."

Though the new design may look like a subtle refresh, it hints at bigger changes coming to Messenger. As Facebook doubles down on AI, increased personalization throughout Messenger and Facebook will probably continue. 

It also marks the first step toward a more News Feed-like approach to Messenger — with more factors determining what each user sees when they open the Messenger app. And Facebook will likely add more sections to Messenger in the future than just those announced Thursday. Eventually, the company could add shortcuts in this part of the app to other Messenger features, like bots or its AI assistant, 'M.'

At a Wired conference in New York, Facebook's Vice President of Messaging Products David Marcus described the update as a "first stab at reinventing the inbox." 

That certainly suggests there's much more in store. 

Like Follow Follow Android users can now do all their texting from Facebook Messenger

Tired of switching back and forth between Facebook Messenger and SMS on your Android? 

On Tuesday, Facebook announced that the Messenger app now supports SMS messaging. That means Android users can set the app as their default texting client. 

For those who want to opt in, the update is now available on Messenger's Android app. (It doesn't appear Facebook has any plans to bring it to its iOS app.)

Once you enable the feature via the "default SMS app" option in Messenger's settings, you'll be able to view your text messages in Messenger alongside your Facebook chats. It will also support some — but not all — of Facebook's "rich content," including stickers, emoji, audio, photos and location information. Other Messenger features, like bots, GIFs, payments and third-party apps, will continue to be limited to Facebook messages.  

Facebook will distinguish between Facebook messages and SMS with different colors: Facebook's will be blue while SMS will be purple. You'll also see the Messenger icon underneath the photo of friends who use Messenger.

Facebook first added SMS support to Messenger's Android app back in 2012, but later pulled the feature. Now, with an increasing emphasis on Messenger, the social network is likely hoping to ramp up engagement with the app even more. But it may not be an easy sell to everyone.

Messenger has proved controversial since the company began requiring its users to download it separately from the main Facebook app, despite making many improvements to Messenger. Last week, it began targeting the remaining Messenger holdouts by removing messaging from the Facebook mobile web app, a move that angered many users. 

In a Facebook post Tuesday, the company emphasized that using the app as a new default SMS client was optional and that user privacy will be protected. 

"SMS in Messenger doesn't send, upload or store your conversations on Facebook servers. Using this feature is your choice; you can easily switch to a different app as your primary SMS app from your device settings, or directly from the app that you want to make your primary SMS app."

Facebook adds free group calling to Messenger

Move over Skype, Facebook Messenger is beefing up its calling features in a big way.

The social network is starting to roll out group calling features to Messenger's iOS and Android apps, Facebook announced Wednesday.

SEE ALSO: 10 hidden tricks to get the most out of Facebook Messenger

The feature is rolling out to Messenger's iOS and Android app over the next 24 hours, Facebook's head of Messenger said Wednesday. A phone icon will appear in the top right corner of group conversations once the feature is live.

When you're in a call, you can see who in the group is participating in the call and who is not. Calls are currently limited to 50 participants per call, so the feature should be able to accommodate the vast majority of your Messenger threads. 

The update also makes Facebook Messenger more competitive with the likes of Google Hangouts, Microsoft's Skype and Slack — all of which also support free group calling.

Facebook has allowed voice calls through Messenger for years but hasn't supported group calling until now. (Video calls are still limited to two people, at least for now, though group video calling would seem to be the next logical step.)

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